by Alison Weir
46. Antiquarian Repertory; Chronicle of Meaux; Gesta Edwardi; CCR.
47. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
48. Higden.
49. See, for example, Rishanger, and below in the text.
50. Register of Thomas Cobham, Bishop of Worcester.
51. Higden.
52. Mortimer.
53. Murimuth.
54. Robert of Reading.
55. Annales Paulini; Gesta Edwardi; Annales Londonienses; Trokelowe; Walsingham; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
56. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
57. Ibid.
58. Annales Paulini.
59. Robert of Reading.
60. Trokelowe.
61. Murimuth; Chronicle of Lanercost.
62. Foedera.
63. CCR; Foedera.
64. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
65. She was the daughter of Eleanor, daughter of Edward I, who had married Henry III, Count of Bar. Surrey, however, was living in open adultery with his mistress, Matilda de Nerford, who bore him children. In 1316, he was excommunicated by Pope John XXII for his adultery.
66. William de Valence was the son of Henry III’s mother, Isabella of Angoulême, by her second husband, Hugh X de Lusignan, Count of La Marche.
67. He was the son of Henry III’s daughter Beatrice by her marriage to John II, Duke of Brittany.
68. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
69. Burney MSS, 277; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
70. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
71. Gesta Edwardi.
72. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
73. E.101.
74. CPR; E.101; Harleian MSS.
75. Wigmore Abbey Annals. She was descended from King John’s queen, Isabella of Angoulême. Mortimer’s own mother had been a third cousin, and he himself was a descendant of King John.
76. Mortimer.
77. E.159.
78. The Brut; Tout, “Captivity and Death.”
79. “Inventory of the Effects of Roger Mortimer.”
80. Annales Paulini; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
81. Annales Londonienses; Gesta Edwardi; Maddicott.
82. Les Journaux de Trésor de Philippe le Bel.
83. Maddicott; Doherty, thesis; Robert of Reading.
84. By Anna Taylor in “The Career of Peter Gaveston.”
85. Maddicott.
86. Maddicott; Doherty, thesis.
87. CPR; Doherty, thesis; E.101.
88. Archives Nationales, MS J356.
89. Higden; Robert of Reading; Chronicle of Meaux.
90. Foedera; CPR.
91. MS in the Wren Library of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral; Maddicott; Doherty, thesis; Robert of Reading.
92. Foedera; CPR; Annales Londonienses.
93. Annales Londonienses; Rawlinson MSS.
94. History of the King’s Works.
95. CPR; Foedera; E.159.
96. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Parliamentary Writs; CPR.
97. Foedera.
98. E.101.
99. E.159.
100. Murimuth; Annales Londonienses; Chronicle of Lanercost; Davies, Baronial Opposition.
101. Chronicle of Lanercost.
102. Annales Paulini; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
103. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
104. Foedera; CPR; CCR; Annales Paulini; C.53.
105. Latin History MS C.5 (R).
106. Chronicle of Lanercost.
107. Latin History MS C.5 (R).
108. Foedera; Les Journaux de Trésor de Philippe le Bel.
109. Latin History MS C.5 (R); Foedera.
110. C.53; Maddicott.
111. C.53.
112. E.403; CPR.
113. Latin History MS C.5 (R).
114. A commote was a self-contained administrative area within Wales.
115. CPR.
116. Foedera.
117. CPR.
118. Foedera.
119. S.C.1; Foedera.
120. Foedera.
121. Ibid.
122. Latin History MS C.5 (R); Rotuli Parliamentorum.
123. Latin History MS C.5 (R); Maddicott.
124. Foedera.
125. Annales Londonienses; Latin History MS C.5 (R); Vita Edwardi Secundi.
126. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
127. Ibid.
128. Foedera.
129. CPR.
130. Gesta Edwardi; Foedera.
131. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
132. Ibid.
133. Robert of Reading; Walsingham; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Chronicle of Lanercost; The Brut.
134. Chronicle of Lanercost.
135. Walsingham.
136. Walsingham; Chronicle of Lanercost; Annales Londonienses.
137. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading.
138. Annales Londonienses; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Gesta Edwardi; Trokelowe; Walsingham; Knighton; Murimuth.
139. All that remains of the friary today is its boundary wall along the riverside.
140. Walter of Guisborough.
141. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland.
142. Walter of Guisborough.
143. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
144. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Annales Londonienses.
145. Calendar of Letterbooks.
146. Burney MS 277.
147. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
148. Annales Londonienses; Foedera; Robert of Reading; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Trokelowe.
149. Annales Londonienses; Foedera; Robert of Reading; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Trokelowe; Parliamentary Writs.
150. CCR.
151. CFR; C.53; Foedera.
152. Foedera.
153. C.81; Annales Paulini; CCR.
154. Rotuli Scotiae; C.81.
155. C.53; CFR.
156. E.101.
157. Foedera.
158. E.101.
159. Annales Paulini; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
160. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
161. E.101.
162. Ibid.
163. CPR; CFR.
164. Annales Londonienses.
165. Chronicle of Lanercost.
166. Simon de Montfort had led the barons against Henry III in the 1260s and had been instrumental in founding Parliament.
167. Foedera.
168. Parliamentary Writs.
169. Walter of Guisborough.
170. Parliamentary Writs.
171. CCR.
172. They are printed in Rotuli Parliamentorum and Statutes of the Realm.
173. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
174. Foedera.
175. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
176. Household Book.
177. Ibid.
178. Ibid.
179. Ibid.
180. Household Book; Foedera.
181. Household Book.
182. Trokelowe; Robert of Reading; Annales Paulini.
183. Robert of Reading; Walter of Guisborough; Annales Paulini.
184. Household Book.
185. Foedera; CPR.
186. Foedera.
187. Foedera; CCR.
188. E.403.
189. Household Book.
190. Ibid.
191. Ibid.
192. Foedera; Cotton MSS, Nero.
193. Foedera.
194. CPR.
195. Ibid.
196. History of the King’s Works; Exchequer Plea Rolls, PRO.
197. Steane.
198. Very little from Isabella’s time survives at Eltham. There are traces of Bek’s hall and cellar. The hunting park was destroyed by the Commonwealth.
199. Household Book.
200. Cotton MSS, Nero.
201. Household Book.
202. Annales Londonienses; Annales Paulini.
203. Trokelowe says he went to France but was forced to flee after King Philip ordered his arrest, but this cannot be correct since Philip had issued a safe-conduct. The Annales Paulini state, probably correctly, that Gaveston went to Bruges.
204. Le Livere de Reis; Annales Londonienses; Househo
ld Book; Rotuli Parliamentorum.
205. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
206. “Chronicle of the Civil Wars.”
207. Foedera; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
208. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
209. Household Book.
210. Ibid.
211. Ibid.
212. Gesta Edwardi; Annales Londonienses; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Walsingham.
213. Capgrave.
214. Household Book.
215. Ibid.
216. Ibid.
217. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
218. Foedera.
219. Foedera; CCR.
220. Ibid.
221. Annales Paulini; Annales Londonienses; Trokelowe; Cotton MSS, Nero.
222. Foedera.
223. E.403.
224. Household Book.
225. Gesta Edwardi. Joan Gaveston died in 1325 at Amesbury Priory, where Edward had arranged for her to be brought up with his niece, Eleanor de Bohun. Her elder sister, Amy, had been born early in the previous year. She, too, apparently died young (CP).
226. Household Book.
227. Cotton MSS, Nero.
228. Household Book.
229. Foedera.
230. Household Book.
231. Foedera; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading.
232. Household Book. In March and April, she also wrote to the Abbot of Saint Mary’s, York, the Prior of Durham (twice), William de Boudon, William Melton, and the Abbot of Newburgh.
233. CFR.
234. Cotton MSS, Nero.
235. Tanner MS 197; Cotton MSS, Nero; Doherty, thesis.
236. CPR.
237. Household Book; Calendar of Chancery Rolls.
238. Foedera.
239. Cotton MSS, Nero.
240. Household Book.
241. Ibid.
242. Cotton MSS, Nero; Doherty, thesis.
243. The priory and castle are now in ruins.
244. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
245. Foedera.
246. Foedera; CPR; CCR.
247. Parliamentary Writs; CPR; CCR; Foedera.
248. Cotton MSS, Nero; CCR; CFR.
249. Foedera; Trokelowe; Walsingham.
250. Household Book. On 29 June, four of the Queen’s men were paid 8s. 8d. for guarding her equipment at South Shields and taking it back to York.
251. Household Book; CPR; E.101; Cotton MSS, Nero.
252. Annales Londonienses; Robert of Reading; Trokelowe; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Cotton MSS, Nero; Foedera; CCR.
253. Robert of Reading; Gesta Edwardi; Chronicle of Lanercost; Annales Paulini; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Annales Londonienses; Harleian MS 636; Literae Cantuarienses.
254. C.53; Trokelowe.
255. Robert of Reading; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Trokelowe.
256. Annales Londonienses; Robert of Reading; Trokelowe.
257. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading.
258. Robert of Reading; Annales Londonienses.
259. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
260. Ibid.
261. Household Book.
262. Annales Londonienses; Robert of Reading; Trokelowe; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
263. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
264. Trokelowe; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
265. Gesta Edwardi; Cotton MSS, Cleopatra.
266. Household Book.
267. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
268. Gesta Edwardi.
269. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
270. Ibid.
271. Ibid.
272. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Annales Londonienses; Annales Paulini; Robert of Reading; Trokelowe; Walsingham; Baker; Murimuth; Gesta Edwardi.
273. For the fate of Gaveston’s body, see Annales Londonienses; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading; Annales Paulini; Baker; Gesta Edwardi; Trokelowe; Walsingham.
274. “Chronicle of the Civil Wars.”
275. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
CHAPTER THREE All That Is Prudent, Amiable, and Feminine
1. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading; The Brut; Trokelowe.
2. Chronicles…of Edward I and Edward II.
3. Cotton MSS, Nero; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Trokelowe.
4. Cotton MSS, Nero.
5. E.101; E.403.
6. Annales Londonienses; Chronicle of Lanercost.
7. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Annales Londonienses.
8. Chronicles…of Edward I and Edward II; Political Poems and Songs.
9. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
10. Ibid.
11. Household Book.
12. Ibid.
13. Doherty, thesis.
14. E.101.
15. Annales Londonienses; Chronicle of Lanercost; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading.
16. Calendar of Letter Books; Parliamentary Writs; Foedera; CCR.
17. Foedera; CPR; CCR; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
18. Foedera; Parliamentary Writs; CCR; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading; Trokelowe.
19. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
20. Ibid.
21. Vita Edwardi Secundi; Annales Londonienses; Annales Paulini; Robert of Reading; Trokelowe; Walsingham.
22. Household Book.
23. Annales Paulini.
24. E.101.
25. Trokelowe.
26. Annales Londonienses; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Phillips, Aymer.
27. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
28. E.101.
29. Strickland.
30. Matthew Paris.
31. History of the King’s Works; Gee; Robinson, Royal Palaces; Brindle and Kerr. Henry III’s royal apartments at Windsor were either destroyed or completely transformed by the extensive alterations carried out by Edward III between 1350 and 1370. These royal apartments were again remodeled or rebuilt for Charles II in the seventeenth century and George IV in the nineteenth. Only a few traces of the buildings in which Isabella lived survive today, several having been revealed during restoration after the fire of 1992.
32. CCR.
33. Walsingham; E.101.
34. Foedera. This was the first occasion on which the time of the birth of an English king was recorded.
35. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
36. CCR; E.159; CPR.
37. Additional MSS; E.159. This is the Queen’s first extant letter.
38. Fawtier.
39. Walsingham.
40. Ibid.
41. Annales Londonienses.
42. Foedera; Cotton MSS, Julius; CCR.
43. C.53.
44. Ibid.
45. E.101.
46. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
47. CFR; Annales Londonienses; Foedera; Lambeth MS 1213; Annales Paulini.
48. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
49. E.101.
50. Annales Londonienses.
51. CPR; Foedera.
52. Mortimer; Menache; Geoffrey de Paris.
53. E.101; Household Book.
54. For the Queen’s household, see her Household Book and Johnstone, “The Queen’s Household.” Johnstone drew on the first and second surviving Household Books for her study.
55. CPR; Household Book.
56. Tout, Chapters; Household Book.
57. Household Book; Tout, Chapters; E.101.
58. Tout, Chapters; Household Book.
59. E.101.
60. Household Book; Davies, Baronial Opposition.
61. Household Book; CPR.
62. Household Book; Letters of the Queens of England; Johnstone, “The Queen’s Household.”
63. Household Book; CPR.
64. Household Book.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. CPR.
69. Tout, Chapters.
70. Now in the British Museum.
71. Strickland.
72. Vale.
73. Household Book.
74. An inventory of the books owned by Isabella at her death is in Vale. See also Tout, Chapters, and Johnstone, “Isabella.”
75. Cited by Rose.
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76. An antiphon, usually from the Psalms, is sung or recited immediately after the Epistle at Mass.
77. The Isabella Psalter is now in the Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
78. Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts; Age of Chivalry catalog.
79. Evans, English Art; Martin; Royal MS 2.B.VII.
80. Lewis. The Isabella of France Apocalypse is MS Fr. 13096 in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
81. Strickland.
82. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
83. It was badly damaged in 1643 and completely destroyed in 1692.
84. Palmer, “The King’s Confessors.”
85. Vale.
86. Martin.
87. CCR.
88. Prestwich.
89. Household Book; Age of Chivalry catalog.
90. Matthew Paris; Parsons.
91. Antient Kalendars; Household Book.
92. Household Book; E.101.
93. The site of the hospital building is now under Saint Katharine’s Dock.
94. Household Book. For full details of Isabella’s financial resources, see Johnstone, “The Queen’s Household.”
CHAPTER FOUR His Dearest Companion
1. E.101.
2. Annales Londonienses.
3. CCR; C.53.
4. E.101.
5. Ibid.
6. CPR.
7. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
8. CCR; Foedera; Parliamentary Writs.
9. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Gascon Rolls, ed. Renouard.
13. Brown, “Diplomacy.”
14. Receuil des historiens de France; Receuil des historiens des Gaules; Vita Edwardi Secundi.
15. Gascon Rolls, ed. Renouard; S.C.1; Archives Municipales; Cotton MSS, Julius.
16. Favier.
17. Doherty, thesis; Cotton MSS, Julius.
18. E.101.
19. Receuil des historiens des Gaules.
20. E.30.
21. Receuil des historiens des Gaules; Geoffrey de Paris; Strickland; Comptes royaux.
22. Gascon Rolls, ed. Renouard.
23. Chronique de Pays-Bas; Grey, Scalacronica; Chronicum comitum Flandriae; Jean des Preis.
24. For what became known as the affair of the Tour de Nesle, see Chronique de Pays-Bas; Grey, Scalacronica; Doherty, thesis; Brown, “Diplomacy”; Cordier; Castries; Bouyer; Kirchhoff; Leblanc-Ginet; Guinle; Jean des Preis; Molinier; Lescot; Normanniae nova chronica; Pirenne; Chronicum Comitum Flandriae; Chronicon Comitum Flandrensium.
25. CCR; Parliamentary Writs.
26. Chronicle of Lanercost.
27. Ibid.
28. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
29. I.e., the Parliament that met on 23 September 1313.
30. S.C.1; Letters of the Queens of England.
31. E.101.
32. Foedera.
33. Vita Edwardi Secundi.
34. Gesta Edwardi; Chronicle of Meaux; Vita Edwardi Secundi; Robert of Reading; Foedera.
35. Foedera; Walsingham; Strickland; Trokelowe.